Current TV, which launched with a user-generated social strategy that was way ahead of its time, has been sold to Al Jazeera. The network, co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore and his business partner Joel Hyatt, has for the last year and a half been a liberal commentary network, but before that had some very innovative approaches to programming.

Read more

Keith Olbermann is headed to Current TV as a host, executive producer and “Chief News Officer.” This morning, Olbermann tweeted the news to his followers:

In a conference call this morning, Olbermann had high praise for Current TV. From The Huffington Post:

Olbermann said that “nothing is more vital to a free America than a free media, “and nothing is more vital to my concept of a free media than news that is produced independently of corporate interference.”" and called Current “the model truth seeking entity” in television.

There is already a web page at Current TV dedicated to Olbermann. It reads, in part: “A few weeks ago, a great provocateur left the television airwaves. But we’re bringing him back.” (Picky note: The airwaves didn’t carry Olbermann’s last show or his upcoming one. Only cable and satellite did.) The site’s front page writes that the show will “begin later this year.”

Current TV has yet to make a significant splash in the cable and online universe. It is clearly banking on Olbermann’s star power to help turn that around.

Six hours after announcing he would announce something on Twitter, Keith Olbermann put forth this tweet followed by another with a mobile photo of himself.

That was anti-climactic. But it became a trending topic, nonetheless.